Danielle Lubashevsky

My name is Danielle, I am originally from Johannesburg, South Africa and now live in Israel. I am twenty four years old and currently a university student while working in the field of Internet Technology. A few months ago I moved out of my parents’ home and began my own journey with my amazing boyfriend. We live in a cozy apartment and my passion is making our house a home through the magic of food and saving the best for last…desserts.

My family love to joke and laugh about how food has always been my passion from when I was a baby and my dear grandmother would stuff me with porridge until you could not see my neck through all that chubby cuteness. The most bizarre tales I found were of me sitting on the table and simply devouring butter as if it was the most decadent confection you could imagine. I believe that that’s where the true love story began.

Mmmm butter…in my eyes pure witchcraft. Since then I have found countless creations that all begin with a few cubes of precisely cut butter and I can’t wait to share them with you.

While still in South Africa my mother owned a concept store by the name of “Swoon” with her business partner, Paula Quinn. The store had everything from Agent Provocateur lingerie to liquors in every flavor under the sun and the most breathtaking line of Patisserie. The memory still glitters in my mind of the aromas of the baking of macarons and petit fours baking in the cottage behind our house. My mother and Paula created in that tiny cottage a mad scientist’s laboratory. My mother, Limor being an artist at heart with a limitless imagination and taste for the finesse of perfection describing to Paula what she wants the petit four to taste like and what color it has to be with no compromises.

They created petit fours in neon colors, macarons infused with lavender or rose essence, in Easter huge chocolate easter eggs with a naughty twist of the playboy bunny logo, mini tartlets with a glistening dark chocolate ganache with a caramelized tuille. They taught me through my taste buds how to think outside of the box while respecting the classics and always using high quality ingredients.

I moved to Israel from South Africa because I was craving an adventure, I dreamed of being a part of a country that runs before they can walk and lives life to the fullest. Boy oh boy did I get more than I bargained for but that’s for another time.

After many unforgettable experiences it came time to be a grown up and decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. How daunting? I remember so clearly sitting with my parents having the talk and suddenly my cheeky little sister, Duelle threw an idea “Hey how cool would it be if you became a pastry chef?” I suddenly found myself giddy with excitement that a little school girl.

That’s when my journey began. I acquired my Patissier diploma at the Bishulim School of high culinary recently name as one of the twelve best cooking schools in the world by “So Good” magazine. I studied under my mentors, Tomer Cabiri (a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu and the renowned former Pastry Chef of “Mul Yam“), Lior Shtaygman (former Pastry Chef of “Reviva and Celia“) and Barry Sayag (former Pastry Chef of Tatti). I went on to continue as an assistant to the Pastry Chefs in the following Patisserie course. This school has recently hosted some of the leading Patissiers in the world such as Christophe Michalak and Christophe Adam(the former head Pastry Chef of Fauchon, Paris and now owner of “Eclair De Genie“). That is only to name a few.

I must be honest that when I started learning I was eager to jump head first into the professional kitchen but I had never baked a cake before I was just a devoted admirer from afar. My heart skipped a beat every time I put on my uniform(even though I looked as if I was playing dressup), every single demonstration by the chefs left me standing baffled at the thought of the genius chemistry behind the perfect mousse, choux pastry(puff pastry), diplomat creme(we’ll definitely talk more about that later), chocolate souffle and many more. It is a serious challenge describing in words the tastes, textures, colours and the sheer beauty of it all.

I worked as a pastry cook in some of the best places here in Tel Aviv each unique in their own way, if it was making desserts at Segev Express, Social Club Bistro. I interned at Cardinalchocolate, one of the few chocolate shops that still make pralines by hand from start to finish. This was a chapter of my life that I will never forget, filled with tears and laughter, long hours of sweet and tons of homework that any kid would love to do.

All these mind blowing experiences have brought me here to this blog. I have left the professional kitchen and I have decided to take my passion of Patisserie into my kitchen at home entertaining my friends and family with all the love that comes with perfecting every taste and detail in my cooking and baking.

I want to share with you here in my blog, my recipes, inspirations, expe